During the war years of the 1940s, I spent a lot of time exploring the loading docks of the companies that received or shipped things by the Southern Railway. They were on a nine-block stretch of track between North Central Street and Kentucky Street that provided adventure, food, wood and cardboard that I could put to good use. Most of those businesses fronted on Jackson Avenue, but some were on the opposite side of the two main tracks and twosz side tracks for deliveries.

Although it fronted at 106 E. Depot, the rear of the J. Allen Smith Co., which produced White Lily Flour and corn meal, sat beside the tracks and received tons of wheat. Many times a large amount of wheat spilled to the ground and could not be sold. I would scoop it up in a cloth sack and feed it to my pigeons or the chickens we had in the yard.

A few blocks away at 601 E. Jackson was the Kennedy-McHan-Campbell Co., which we knew as KMC food wholesalers. On its dock one could find outdated jars of mayonnaise, peanut butter and sandwich spread. One block away was Specialty Foods, where one could find cartons of outdated candy bars and other treats.

CLOSE

Want to submit your letter to the editor? Here is how.
Wochit

Many times stopped at the Siler Brokerage Co. at 611 Jackson Ave. to help the men unload the box cars as they placed bags of beans and boxes of canned goods on the conveyor belt that carried the food from the train to the warehouse. When a bag of beans fell off the belt and broke open, I would go home, get my bag and scoop up pinto, navy or butter beans.

At an early age I learned to cook a pot of good-tasting beans. Sometimes I planted the beans in my Victory garden to have a good crop of green beans to go with my tomatoes and okra.

In addition to finding food fit to eat during those years when most things were rationed, I also found ways to make spending money on some of those docks. The Fireproof Storage & Van Co. at 201 Randolph St. also had a large loading dock on those tracks. Whey they unpacked large pieces of equipment shipped to them, they discarded the wood and cardboard containers.

I cut the wood up and sold it for kindling. I saved the cardboard until I had enough to sell to a nearby paper company just off Magnolia Avenue.

Selling those things and doing chores for the neighbors brought enough nickels and dimes to see weekly movies at the Gem Theatre and buy popcorn, too.

One interesting place away from the tracks was the Central Labor Council on Morgan Street, where one could find hundreds of discarded campaign buttons after an election. A block away was the Roddy Manufacturing Co., where we watched the conveyor belt carry Coca-Cola bottles as they were filled and capped as they zipped by the display window.

Robert J. Booker is a freelance writer and former executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. He may be reached at 546-1576.